Kinross climber clung to life with ice pick in Mount Everest avalanches

A Kinross climber who survived deadly avalanches on Mount Everest has returned home to his wife and baby.

James Grieve, 52, clung to the world’s highest peak with an ice pick as the mountain was decimated in the Nepal quake, which killed at least 19 climbers.

Mr Grieve, originally from Kennoway, said he thought he would not see his one-year-old son James or partner Shirley, 41, again as the snow sped toward him.

James said: “As the avalanche came towards my group, 19,500ft up the mountain, thoughts of them came flooding into my mind. For a split second up there I thought that was it for me.

“I cuddled Shirley at Edinburgh Airport and when I got home I played with my wee boy James. How lucky am I?”

Mr Grieve, of Bellfield, who works as a chief rig technician for offshore drilling contractor Teniz Burgylau in Kazakhstan, had been climbing with a group from Help for Heroes and Children 1st.